City Council, Density, homelessness, labor, Mayor Harrell, Transportation

This Week on PubliCola: May 4, 2024

A roundup of this week’s news.

Monday, April 29

Planning Commission: Harrell’s Growth Plan Will Worsen Inequities and Keep Housing Unaffordable

The Seattle Planning commission weighed in on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s proposed comprehensive plan update, which proposes a continuation of thepr “urban village” strategy developed to preserve single-family enclaves in the 1990s, calling it unrealistic and inadequate. ““In order to ensure everyone has a home they can afford in the neighborhood of their choice, we need to plan to increase, not reduce, our current rate of housing production” to allow “five to eight story multifamily housing in many more areas of the city,” the commission wrote.

Burien Moves Forward on Tiny House Village as Mayor Vilifies Police Chief for Not Enforcing Camping Ban

The city of Burien tentatively approved a zoning change that could help advance a long-planned tiny house village on property owned by Seattle City Light (see below, though, for an update). Meanwhile, Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling claimed the city is selectively paying the King County Sheriff’s Office for police service except for what they would owe the county for enforcing the city’s homeless ban—a claim the sheriff’s office couldn’t verify, since the city doesn’t owe them a payment until next month.

Tuesday, April 30

“I’m Losing My Temper”: Moore Accuses Morales of Calling Her Council Colleagues “Evil… Corporate Shills”

In comments that rattled some of her colleagues, Cathy Moore accused her fellow council member Tammy Morales of “vilifying” Moore and other council members in the media, saying she had called them “evil… corporate shills” who “don’t care about our fellow human beings” because they voted against an affordable-housing pilot Morales had been working on for years. Morales did express disappointment in the vote, but there is no evidence for Moore’s specific accusations. Moore also threatened to use council rules to silence Morales if she failed to be “civil.”

Labor Fizz: City Reduces Delay for Workers’ Retro Pay; Harrell Praises SPOG Contract for “Enhancing Accountability”

City workers learned this week that they’ll get retroactive pay increases in July, rather than October. Last month, the city told employees working under a new contract that the city would have to delay paying back wages because they’re implementing a new payroll system later this year. Also, Mayor Bruce Harrell released a tentative police contract that would make Seattle police the highest-paid in the region, boosting their starting pay, before overtime and bonuses, into six figures.

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Wednesday, May 1

Council Kills Morales’ Affordable Housing Bill, Arguing for More Process and Delay

The Seattle City Council voted 7-2 to kill legislation aimed at helping community organizations with “limited development experience” build small-scale affordable housing developments. Morales had been working on the program, called the “Connected Communities Pilot,” since 2022. Council members called the legislation premature, saying such proposals should get in line behind the 2024 housing levy and what will likely be the 2025 comprehensive plan.

Thursday, May 2

Officer Who Joked About Pedestrian Death Will Speak on Traffic Safety at Conference; Moore Calls for “More Vice Squads”

Daniel Auderer, the Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president who laughed and joked about a fellow officer’s killing of pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula, will speak at a prestigious conference on traffic safety later this year. The conference program says Auderer will be representing SPD, although SPD denies this and says they aren’t paying for him to attend. And: At a meeting on public safety, Councilmember Cathy Moore said that in addition to bringing back an old prostitution loitering law, she wants to see “more vice squads” on Aurora Ave. N.

Friday, May 3

Harrell’s Transportation Levy Proposal Boosts Tax Measure to $1.45 Million, Front-Loads Sidewalk Construction

After advocacy groups expressed disappointment that the proposed transportation levy renewal backed off on bike, pedestrian, and transit projects, the mayor proposed a revised version that adds $100 million to the ballot measure and pushes sidewalk construction to the first four years of the eight-year levy proposal, which now heads to the city council for amendments.

Harrell Discusses Gig Worker Minimum Wage Repeal, Burien Restrictions Could Prohibit Tiny House Village

Remember what we said about Burien’s tiny house village vote? Well, it turns out the zoning legislation they’re considering on Monday will prohibit a proposed tiny house village unless the council amends it, because it restricts transitional housing to parcels much smaller than the one where the village is supposed to go. And: Will Harrell come out against Sara Nelson’s proposal to repeal the current minimum wage and labor protections for delivery drivers? Organized labor seems to be banking on it.

City Council, homelessness, King County, labor, Mayor Harrell, Morning Fizz

Harrell Discusses Gig Worker Minimum Wage Repeal, Burien Restrictions Could Prohibit Tiny House Village

1. Organized labor groups like the MLK Labor Council and Working Washington have vociferously opposed a proposal from Council President Sara Nelson to slash delivery drivers’ wages and roll back their legal rights, showing in council chambers and writing letters urging the council to vote against Nelson’s bill (which, notably, does not eliminate the $5 fees the companies added to orders when higher wages went into effect last year.)

In recent weeks, those same groups have been throwing their weight behind Mayor Bruce Harrell, reminding him none too subtly of his past commitments to labor priorities. In the last two weeks alone, the Labor Council nominated Harrell for a “Best Elected Official” award, and Working Washington all but fêted him during a City Hall celebration for the 10-year anniversary of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage.

Nelson’s bill seems likely to pass, but it could be amended; or, if the vote is 5-4, the mayor could veto it. On Friday, Harrell told PubliCola it’s still “too early to say whether I would [veto] or not,” but he still has a lot of unanswered questions about the legislation, including “why people are not using the service, why small businesses have not been getting orders, [and] what is the cause” of the slowdown in deliveries since higher wages for workers went into effect and the delivery companies imposed a $5-per-order fee.

“Are they sharing and being transparent with the information for us, as policymakers, to make good decisions? We have to have that information. And if we’re not accomplishing that, we will never achieve the [other] goals, which are driver equity and pay and small business revenue growth.”

The debate over the legislation, Harrell continued, “seems to be really fraught with conflict, and it doesn’t seem to be coming together [to a point] where all of the stakeholders can agree on their goal.”

The council’s governance, accountability, and economic development committee, which Nelson chairs, has its next meeting on Thursday, May 9, where they’re expected to discuss the proposal.

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2. The Burien City Council will vote Monday on a proposed zoning change to allow transitional housing, including tiny house villages, on certatin residentially zoned property in the city. The legislation came out of a lengthy debate last year over whether the city should accept $1 million King County offered the city to build a tiny house village; and, if so, where the village should go. The city council eventually settled on a piece of property owned by Seattle City Light.

However, the proposal as written may not be viable. Because of an amendment inserted in the zoning proposal by Councilmember Stephanie Mora, a consistent opponent of the project, transitional housing can only be located on properties that are between 1 and 2 acres in size—and the City Light property is 4.6 acres, according to King County property records.

A spokesperson for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority said KCRHA staff have asked for clarification about Burien’s plans, including whether the city plans to subdivide the site so that the parcel where the village is located does not exceed two acres.

A spokesperson for the city of Burien said the proposal, which is currently on the council’s consent agenda, still isn’t final. “Until the City Council votes on Monday, there is still potential for the proposed ordinance to be amended.”

The legislation limits the total number of people—not buildings—at any transitional housing project to 30, which would result in a smaller tiny house village than most of those operating in Seattle.

The City Light property won’t be available forever. According to a City Light spokesperson, “The site is being held for a proposed future substation to meet projected demands through our comprehensive electrification planning efforts. Incidental use of the property is permitted on an interim basis only and in coordination with all partners involved.”

Also on Monday, King County Sheriff Patti Cole-Tindall and Burien Police Chief Ted Boe will be part of a “public safety roundtable” to discuss public safety and mental health and addiction responses in Burien. The sheriff’s office provides police services through an agreement with Burien, and is currently suing the city over a total ban on “camping” that the county’s lawyers have called unconstitutional.

Because Boe, as a representative of the sheriff’s office, has said he won’t enforce the ban, the city has countersued the sheriff’s office for breach of contract; directed city staffers to stop paying the police department’s invoices; and called for Boe’s ouster, prompting outrage from veteran police officers loyal to the popular chief.

According to the B-Town Blog, Bailon responded to the announcement of Monday’s forum by demanding the removal of all references to Burien and the Burien Police Department from the materials for the event, claiming that “Burien’s name and logo to add credibility to King County’s proposed roundtable”—arguably a dubious claim, given the ongoing chaos caused by the city’s actions.

Elections, Mayor Harrell, Transportation, Uncategorized

Harrell’s Transportation Levy Proposal Boosts Tax Measure to $1.45 Million, Front-Loads Sidewalk Construction
Mayor Bruce Harrell (with ASL interpreter), SDOT Director Greg Spotts
Mayor Bruce Harrell (with ASL interpreter), SDOT Director Greg Spotts

Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed an updated, $1.45 billion version of the 2024 Transportation Levy on Friday that would increase levy funding by about $100 million, accelerate the construction of 250 blocks of new sidewalks, and commit funds to some specific priority projects, providing more specificity than the lengthy “candidate project” lists in the first draft of the proposal released in April. The amended levy would cost the median Seattle homeowner $41 a month and last eight years.

Speaking at Fritz Hedges Waterfront Park in the University District Friday morning, Harrell said his office and the Seattle Department of Transportation heard support from the public for a larger, more ambitious levy. As PubliCola has reported, advocacy groups expressed disappointment that the levy backed off on bike, pedestrian, and transit projects, emphasizing road paving and maintenance over dedicated funding for sidewalks, new bike infrastructure, and safer routes to transit stops.

“If there’s one thing we should be proud of, it’s that we’re not perfect, but we strive to listen,” Harrell said. “I’ve been around the block a few times. You just can’t please everyone, but you can try to listen to everyone and try to calibrate a package that makes good sense, centered around our need for safety.”

The plan Harrell rolled on Friday includes modest boosts to funding for bike, transit, and pedestrian improvements, including $20 million in new funds to “expand the bike network, with a focus on South Seattle” and $20 million to build 30 blocks of new sidewalks on transit routes in the city’s urban centers. Additionally, the proposal would frontload sidewalk construction to the first four years of the levy, with the goal of building all 250 blocks of new sidewalks by 2029. There’s also $5 million for new pedestrian lighting, $3 million more for preventative bridge maintenance, and another $10 million for electric vehicle charging stations, a key part of the levy’s “climate and resiliency” section.

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Growing evidence shows that EVs themselves cause substantial environmental harm and do nothing to reduce car dependence and sprawl.  Large trucks, whether EV or not, are extremely dangerous to pedestrians and smaller vehicles because of their weight and low visibility. The Move Seattle Levy Oversight Board did not include subsidized EV infrastructure in their recommendations for this year’s levy renewal.

In 2023, SDOT released a “Top-to-Bottom Review” of the city’s efforts to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030, a commitment known as Vision Zero. Like other cities, Seattle has seen increases in deaths and serious injuries caused by vehicles over the past several years. Asked how confident he as that the nine-year levy will move the needle on Vision Zero, SDOT Director Greg Spotts said, “we’ve infused safety within all aspects of the different categories of investments.”

For example, Spotts said, the latest version of the plan added “modernization” to the the “street maintenance” category, reflecting a commitment to “making investments in better connectivity for walking, biking, and transit” as part of maintenance. “So we’re not just going to lock in an outdated street design from the ’60s, we’re going to actually update it and make it safer.”

Although the new levy will be larger than the Move Seattle voters passed in 2015, it will still spend less, after adjusting for inflation, on pedestrian and transit improvements than previous levies, according to an analysis by Seattle Neighborhood Greenways’ Ethan Campbell. Transportation Choices Coalition, Cascade Bicycle Club, and Disability Rights Washington are supporting the plan, and appeared alongside Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce CEO Rachel Smith and Lake City Collective director César García at Friday’s event.

The Seattle City Council will hold its first discussion of the transportation levy proposal next Tuesday. Once it’s amended and approved by the council, the final measure will go on the November ballot.

City Council, Morning Fizz, Police

Officer Who Joked About Pedestrian Death Will Speak on Traffic Safety at Conference; Moore Calls for “More Vice Squads”

1. Daniel Auderer, the Seattle Police Officers Guild vice president who was caught on tape joking with SPOG president Mike Solan about the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a 23-year-old student who was killed last year when SPD officer Kevin Dave struck her in a crosswalk while driving 74 miles an hour, was reassigned to low-profile office duties while the Office of Police Accountability investigates multiple complaints against him.

Despite Auderer’s notoriety, he will appear on a national stage in August, when he will be one of two speakers from the Seattle Police Department at national traffic safety conference put on by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Washington, D.C.

UPDATE: After this post published, a spokesman for SPD contacted PubliCola to say that Auderer is not “representing” the department at the conference, but could not explain why Auderer and another officer, Tom Heller, are listed on the IACP’s program as Seattle Police Department representatives. The spokesman said SPD is not paying for Auderer to travel to or appear at the conference and did not receive a request for him to attend the conference and speak.

According to the program for the IACP’s Impaired Driving and Traffic Safety Conference, Auderer will lead a workshop called “Becoming a Pickup Artist: How to Get More Out of Interviews,” where he’ll teach other officers how to get accurate information out of crime victims, witnesses, and suspects “using only the power of human psychology.”

“From the roadside to the interrogation room, learn how to use human memory, perception, and motivation to improve investigations,” the panel description promises.

Asked about Auderer’s D.C. appearance and his current assignment within the department, a spokesperson said, “We don’t have any further updates or information concerning Auderer other than what has previously been provided.”

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2. Expanding on her proposal to restore a former law against “prostitution loitering,” City Councilmember Cathy Moore told a North Seattle public safety group yesterday that she would like to see “more vice squads” on Aurora Ave. North, a stretch of road where sex workers have congregated for decades.

“I know that SPD is doing their best, I think they have two vice officers. They need more vice squads,” Moore said. Mayor Bruce Harrell, Moore added, “is not coming to the table on this, and they’re not showing up in a way that they need to show up on Aurora. I have reached out to their office to talk about this. We as a council can’t do it all alone. They are in charge of everything [including] the resources.”

Councilmember Moore said she asked Police Chief Adrian Diaz for an update on SPD’s response to a damning report that revealed a widespread culture of misogyny in the department and “I did not receive a response.” She also called SPD’s PR response to four women’s lawsuit against the department “highly unacceptable.”

Moore, who represents North Seattle’s District 5, made her comments at a forum sponsored by the North Precinct Advisory Council Wednesday night. The forum also included District 4 Councilmember Maritza Rivera (Northeast Seattle) and District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss (Northwest Seattle).

Rivera expressed her support for Moore’s proposal to bring back the prostitution loitering law, saying it was part of a “holistic” approach that should also include traffic calming measures to slow down cars on Aurora and give the area more of a “neighborhood feel.”

The city council repealed laws against prostitution and drug loitering on the recommendation of a work group convened in 2015 to support and reduce barriers for people with criminal history. According to the work group, the prostitution loitering targets people who are “already at high risk for trafficking, abuse, and other exploitation”—disproportionately women of color—and puts them at further risk. Prostitution itself is still illegal, but the city has only made 25 prostitution arrests since 2019.

3. Moore, along with her council colleagues Bob Kettle and Rob Saka, issued a statement Thursday morning expressing support for an independent investigation Mayor Bruce Harrell announced earlier this week, after four women announced their intent to sue over allegations of sexual harassment by Police Chief Adrian Diaz and communications office director John O’Neil. “We must address barriers to recruiting and retaining women sworn officers to make desperately needed progress on our public safety crisis,” she said.

Asked about the allegations at Wednesday’s meeting, Moore was more explicit, saying she asked Diaz for an update on SPD’s response to a damning report that revealed a widespread culture of misogyny in the department and “I did not receive a response.”

SPD’s “public relations response” to the charges was “highly unacceptable,” Moore added. The department issued a statement responding to the women’s claims that essentially called them all liars, saying their allegations were based on “individual perceptions of victimhood that are unsupported and – in some instances – belied by the comprehensive investigations that will no doubt ultimately be of record.”

 

 

City Council, Density, housing

Council Kills Morales’ Affordable Housing Bill, Arguing for More Process and Delay

By Erica C. Barnett

The Seattle City Council voted 7-2 to kill legislation sponsored by Councilmember Tammy Morales aimed at helping community organizations with “limited development experience” build small-scale affordable housing developments and “equitable development” projects, such as health clinics, day care, and retail space.

Morales had been working on the program, called the “Connected Communities Pilot,” since 2022. The five-year pilot would have helped as many as 35 community organizations build larger, taller buildings, as long as they preserved a third of their rental units for people making 60 percent or less of the Seattle’s area median income (AMI), or built homeownership units for people making 100 percent of Seattle AMI or less.

It would have also allowed community groups to build apartments in areas of the city that have historically been reserved for single-family houses, and exempted certain projects in historically redlined areas from design review and parking minimums, two requirements that can add significant time and cost to projects.

The council’s land use committee, which Morales chairs, voted against her bill last week, citing vague concerns that the bill had been rushed and that there were more appropriate avenues for building affordable housing.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Morales’ new colleagues repeated those claims, suggesting that the city should instead provide affordable housing through the comprehensive plan, the housing levy, or some unspecified future legislative route.

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“After the comp plan process is finalized, we can determine if additional legislation is needed to achieve our housing goals,” Councilmember Maritza Rivera said on Tuesday. “In addition, the city just passed a nearly $1 billion [housing levy] and we do not yet know how these funds will be implemented. … Finally, given our housing shortage and the slowing down of recent development, we need to consider how to incentivize all development, rather than singling out some investments over others.”

In fact, as Morales pointed out, the city does know how the Housing Levy funds will be spent. And the comprehensive plan update is a set of policy guidelines, not legislation—the city can still pass housing legislation and incentives before finalizing the update, which might not happen until next year. “This is just another tool to help us meet our housing shortage, which we all acknowledge we have,” she said. Continue reading “Council Kills Morales’ Affordable Housing Bill, Arguing for More Process and Delay” →

labor, Mayor Harrell, Police

Labor Fizz: City Reduces Delay for Workers’ Retro Pay; Harrell Praises SPOG Contract for “Enhancing Accountability”

1. City employees who were told earlier this year that they wouldn’t receive pay for retroactive wage increases until October—a delay some workers described as a “zero-interest loan” to the city—learned this week that their wait will be shorter, with payments coming in July.

Unions representing thousands of city workers spent the last year negotiating new contracts with Mayor Bruce Harrell’s labor relations office; initially, Harrell offered workers sub-inflationary raises of 1 percent, but the final contracts raised that amount to the rate of inflation, capped at 4 and 5 percent for 2025 and 2026, respectively.

The retroactive pay increases are 5 percent for 2023 and 4.5 percent for 2024. Initially, the city told its employees that the implementation of a new payroll system called Workday was the cause for the lengthy delay. When PubliCola asked why Workday was no longer an issue, the city’s human resources department responded by sending the email that went out to city employees this week. An FAQ attached to that email noted that the payments will go out through the city’s existing payroll software; the city did not respond to questions about why Workday was no longer an issue.

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2. Mayor Bruce Harrell officially released the tentative 2021-2023 contract between the Seattle Police Officers Guild and the city on Monday, calling the deal a “shared commitment with our police officers to continue strengthening public safety.” As PubliCola exclusively reported several weeks ago, the contract gives police a total retroactive pay increase of 23 percent through 2023, with future pay increases to be determined based on a separate contract for 2024 onward that is reportedly in mediation.

The new contract will raise the base pay for new police officers, before overtime and bonuses, to around $103,000—the highest pay for police officers in the region. As we reported, the agreement offers no significant improvements to police accountability and still falls far short of the baseline established by a police accountability ordinance in 2017, which was superseded by SPOG’s (noncompliant) 2018 contract.. Nonetheless, in a statement praising the contract, Mayor Bruce Harrell said it will “enhanc[e] accountability measures to ensure allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated and discipline is appropriate.”

The next step for the SPOG contract is approval by the city council.